Monthly Archives: May 2012

My daily work involves connecting to several number of database servers and this involves me to remember server name or IP, port number, User Id and Passwords of those servers. Number of servers I connect is more than 20 and due to this huge number I tend to forget the IP address, password etc. I can use the option of remember password, which will remember and list all the required server details with user id and password.

But the problem starts once you need to connect to a particular database server using more than one User Id. Once you use 2nd user id, SQL Server Management Studio fails to remember any of the passwords for that server.

So what is the solution?

SQL Server Management Studio has an option to manage server details, i.e. Registered Servers. By registering the server connection in the Registered Servers component of SQL Server Management Studio you can save the connection information for servers that are accessed frequently.
This option can be found under View menu.

A separate window will appear on the left hand side of the SSMS along with Object explorer. On right-clicking on Local Server Groups, option to register new server or to create new server group will appear. Creating Server group is optional but it will help in managing large number of server connections by logical grouping.

When Server Registration is opted, below window will appear. Opt for remember password option to remember the server connection.

In the above window you will find another tab which can be used to customize the connection further.

Default database can be set here, so that every time you connect to a particular server from the registered server option, it will by default connect to the default database.

Choose custom color for each server connections, so that one can easily differentiate between each connection.